Royaume de glace

Whenever I tee-up a post 2000 black metal release for review, I often end up casting classics of the past as mythical tomes of wisdom, and the rare gems of the more recent past as proud bastions against an endless tide of mediocrity, the last outposts of hope. What is the cause of this bunker mentality? Why so suspicious of modern metal’s evolution, it’s many branches and tangents? The short answer is that most of it demonstrates only a surface level understanding of what made extreme metal unique. Yes, extreme metal (particularly black metal) was always a highly stylised form of music, with a very specific aesthetic, but this should be considered secondary to the underlying mechanics lurking beneath the veneer. It’s why an album like ‘Breeding the Spawn’ with notoriously ill-suited production endures all the same. But in terms of black metal, the elements that are easiest to imitate have come to define a vast chunk of works after the mid-1990s; namely ambience and atmosphere. So today, rather than casting throwaway aspersions in the direction of this morbidly obese body of work, we’ll honestly and fairly dissect one such rellease, picked almost at random (by that I mean carefully and deliberately selected for their various merits and flaws), and see what’s under the hood.

Scooping the Canadian scene can always be a good place to start for post 2000 black metal. Sombres Forets offer a good example of a project that sticks to mood and atmosphere over composition, whilst still paying homage to the virtues of structure. This is of course before they devolved into post black snoozegaze on 2013’s ‘La Mort du Soleil’. Their second album, 2008’s ‘Royaume de Glace’ by contrast is probably the best place to dive in for newcomers to this artist, offering a solid mix of slow, plodding black metal that is carried along by a determined rhythm section regardless. This is essentially a more imaginative, melodic redo of early Judas Iscariot, with simple yet richly realised melodies and arpeggios decorating basic but deliberate chord sequences. It’s clearly designed to invoke the feeling of walking…slowly, through frozen landscapes, woodlands and fields, with the characteristically passionate high-end vocals that are common to the Quebecoise scene echoing out of the mix.

Production is fairly standard for ethereal black metal. The focus is on the foundation provided by the simple, meandering guitars, and working up from there. Drums are solid but garage quality. We’re not missing much in terms of detail here, but then again, they do exactly as required for this fairly tempo consistent brand of black metal; slightly more interesting than a metronome, but never detracting from the vibe that relies on fluidity and smooth transitions of mood. Minimal keyboards, acoustic guitars, and simple leads are clearly intended to be the stars of the show; all are emphasised to give the maximum contrast to the relatively rough mix.

Structurally, Sombres Forets do just enough to keep things interesting. Let’s call it a…stimulation sandwich. Although this could be misleading as it seems to imply that ‘Royaume de Glace’ is a feast of stimulation…or a sandwich of stimulation if you will. No, in this context we need to be thinking more along the lines of a compliment sandwich, where in your appraisal your boss gives you a compliment, followed by some criticism, followed by a compliment; all designed to soften the blow in the middle. Sombres Forets do something similar here; to soften the blow of mild boredom found in the mid-section of ‘Royaume de Glace’, they offer some mildly interesting nuggets by way of prologue and epilogue, in the hope that we’ll have forgotten the already forgettable middle clutch of tracks by the end.

The first third or so is characterised by a cold and atmospheric intro, followed by the opening title track, with key changes…riffs not afraid to spread their staccato wings now and then, and even some contrast and tension; before things gradually devolve into a plodding more-of-the-same-but-lazier slog for a few tracks. But then the closer ‘L’œil Nocturne’ picks things up again before a pleasing acoustic piece to close. This isn’t just a case of the album having a beginning, a middle, and an end. It’s more that the middle, pleasant enough as it is, is completely static and safe by comparison. And it illustrates a common problem for many contemporary albums: a dearth of ideas that are nevertheless stretched out to LP length in the hope that atmosphere will cover up the lack of activity. Not repetitive enough to come out the other end into pure ambient black metal, nor varied enough to approach excitement. It ultimately means that ‘Royaume de Glace’ is an ‘ok’ album with hints of meaningless slog, which one ends up resenting for daring to be just interesting enough to distract the mind for a bit, as opposed to being something we can completely shut out while we contemplate how to serve a bowl of cereal.

So what have we learned? Well, have you ever fucked around on a keyboard and found an awesome synth patch, one so cool you can just alternate between a couple of notes for hours? Therein lies the jeopardy of a highly stylised form of music like ambient black metal. The simplest collection of harmonies can be extended well beyond their usual shelf life because the focus has shifted onto creating the perfect guitar tone, or that perfect string/choir combo. But one must not mistake the allure of such things for their application to a substantive musical philosophy. Sombres Forets, although sitting at the more domesticated end of atmospheric black metal, probably overplay their hand when it comes to atmosphere, being overly reliant on the mood of the music when the mood really ain’t all that. Some serviceable ideas crop up here and there, but one gets the feeling that we’re supposed to be immersed in this work when it’s really not all that immersive in terms of texture. It’s an album that needs to pick a lane; either strengthen up those riffs into decent, low key black metal, or strip that back and work on adding more depth to the sound.

Originally published at Hate Meditations

Sombres Foret’s Royaume De Glace translates to Kingdom of Ice, which seems rather appropriate. While maintaining a unique identity, Sombres Forets is more or less indicative of the general predominant sounds of the Quebec black metal scene – very atmospheric but remaining a sharp set of teeth at its core, has touches of depressive black metal and more than anything evokes an icy feeling. If you’ve heard the debut, you already know the template. Annatar has essentially made the same album twice – the main difference being that he did a much better job the second time around. There has only been a two year break between albums, so one can only assume the man hit the woodshed pretty damn hard.

Let’s be honest for second, guys. One-man black metal bands often have a tendency to suck pretty hard. A lot of the time it’s just a dude who’s ok enough at the guitar rasping along with a lame drum machine and a bass half-heartedly following the root note. A lot of the time it’s just done out of necessity and it doesn’t end up feeling complete (and then there’s also the issue of many one-man BM bands feeling the need to release 10 albums a year, but I’ll save that for another rant). What Annatar has created is worlds removed from a greasy teenager making incompetent Darkthrone or Burzum rehashes in his mother’s basement. Royaum De Glace is a fully realized vision, both evoking vast winter landscapes through atmosphere and showing some really tight chops as a multi-instrumentalist. There is no need for a full band, because Annatar can play circles around the average black metal musical on whatever instrument he chooses.

It seems that behind the best one-man black metal bands, more often than not lies an excellent drummer. Leviathan, Panopticon, Ruins of Beverast . . . and now Sombres Forets seems to be continuing that tradition. While he is better at everything this time around, it definitely shows the most in his drumming. He’s not doing anything that revolutionary, his playing is just really tight, varied and imaginative. Most importantly, he does lots of little things to spice it up: an intricate cymbal pattern here, an inventive fill there. He knows how to ebb and flow, when to hold back and let the atmosphere develop and when to make the drumming a true show stealer. It also helps that the drums have a very clear, organic sound that works wonderfully with the atmospheric nature of the music.

The not being revolutionary but adding little things to spice it up sentiment applies to the whole album, really. The debut was this album in rudimentary form, basically. Here, he’ll have a volcanic lead guitar climax like in “The Forrest” (seriously, if a guitar could have an orgasm this is what it would sound like), a really well thought-out acoustic guitar section that is evidently so much more than the window dressing that so many black metal bands use them as or even just an unexpected change in tempo to mix things up. At the heart of this is a pretty familiar formula, Annatar has just done his absolute best to make the most of it. The riffs here aren’t really hammer you in the face type of thing, but they still feel like legitimate black metal and lets this atmospheric release still retain some bite. There’s still some ambient textures and the keyboard tones are fantastic and have a deeply ethereal presence. The folk sections are excellent, just as much time has obviously been put into crafting them as the black metal parts. While it has taken me a few listens to really appreciate this, the bass often plays these really awesome melodies in the background, contrasting the icy tremolo waves of fuzz produced by the guitar.

The evolution here is very similar to Gris, a band very much intertwined with Sombres Forets (a trend that would carry over to both bands' third albums). Both bands took the previous template and used it as a springboard to expand their sound while remaining faithful to their core aesthetic. This actually does feel like it explores a lot of the same ideas as Gris, just in a slightly more orthodox form. Anyway, Royaume De Glace perfectly captures the feeling of a Québécois winter and a feeling pretty indicitave of the QCBM scene in general. I absolutely consider this to be one of the quintessential staples of Quebec’s black metal cannon. This is a very important release in a scene absolutely brimming with creativity.

Gosh, seven years have passed since I reviewed this Canadian act's debut "Quintessence". I sure have been slow to catch onto the reality that Annatar has released two follow-up albums since then. I've heard "Royaume de Glace" - "Kingdom of Ice" in English - a few times now and it's a very grand and epic recording. Annatar has obviously worked on and polished his style and done some live performances with hired musicians and his experiences are reflected in the music. Drama and a dynamic flowing quality are present, there is a good sense of direction, individual songs are crafted very well with room for dark urban / melodic post-BM instrumental sections, and the playing sounds very confident.

The album opens with the most marvellous instrumental introduction I've heard in years: dark and sorrowful, redolent of fading grandeur and with foreboding of what's to come. The title track that follows immediately upholds the dark ambience and carries and builds on the momentum established with graceful, darkly sparkling riffs, crisp percussion and death-rattle vocals. Annatar's voice is very thin and sometimes so spidery that it can be inaudible beneath the two sets of guitars (BM and acoustic) on some tracks. Not that this is really a major problem as the music is highly melodic and flows beautifully from BM to dark acoustic and back but sometimes the pain and the anguish in the singing can be missed. Moments of malevolence sometimes open up with slight changes of key or flattened notes.

As the album progresses, the mood becomes ... well, more sombre and dark: "Cold Forgotten Earth" is a heavy, near-thundering track, strong on bass-dominated rhythms and doomy beats, and revealing an unexpected near-experimental ambient middle section. "L'oeil nocturne" is a very solid effort though in spite of its strong riffs backed up soft synth tones it's a lesser track simply by comparison with much of the rest of the album. The best part of the song is its instrumental coda, filled with despair and deep pain. "La nuit", the second of two tracks to feature French-language lyrics, is an emotionally intense song with majestic riffing and a complex, contradictory nature from the combination of piano, noisy BM guitars, acoustic strings, an interesting use of synths to produce an orchestral horn section effect and powerfully doomy percussion.

Each track has its distinct musical identity and seems to improve on the previous song. I daresay that if they had been arranged differently or even back to front so that the intro becomes the outro and the title track the second-last song, I'd still be saying the same thing about them all!

There's not much to fault here though personally I'd prefer the vocals to be more upfront in the final mix and more varied in delivery: some clean vocals and/or spoken word lyrics would help, maybe even duelling voices with a second vocalist. The singing is quite thin in a number of songs because the music is often powerful with dramatic and stirring riffs and melodies. Also at this point I would query the need to sing in both English and French: Annatar should sing in whichever language he feels more comfortable and which offers him the better opportunity to express emotion to its full.

Apart from these minor points, the album is a tremendous leap forward in this act's evolution. I'm wondering how the third album will shape up after this second one - "Royaume de Glace" is sure to be a hard act to beat.

As things stand, 2008 is standing up to the challenges laid down by the year 2007, perhaps the most promising year in recent times for the metal industry. Many stated that 2008 would struggle to keep up with the high standard that the year 2007 brought us but, in my opinion, it has steadily proved time and time again that it can match anything the previous year gave us. In some cases, perhaps even better it. This is one of those cases where the standard from 2007 has been erased and washed over with a much higher standard than was initially set. Canada’s Sombres Forêts are leading the pack it seems in the race for the best black metal record of the year, perhaps even the decade. Exaggeration? It could be viewed as that to most, but this record, ‘Royaume De Glace' is one heck of an outstanding assault on it's audience.

One man bands once seemed rather impressive, and although they still are, the impressiveness of them has gone down in most people's estimation due to the fact that there are so many of them in this day and age. A one man band isn't abnormal in the black metal industry. In actual fact, it seems to be commonplace. Although that may be the case, I cannot help but feel envious of Annatar's musicianship. His skills are undoubted. The debut was only a slight indication of what was possible if Annatar put his mind to it, but this record is a showcase. In some ways, Annatar reminds me of The Ruins Of Beverast front man, Alexander. Their skills are almost unparalleled within the scene, especially the latter who is slowly becoming recognised as one of the world's top performers in the industry. Like The Ruins Of Beverast, Sombres Forêts are beginning to stamp their authority of a nation's scene and this is proof of that.

Considering I've not reviewed the first record, I'll try not to make too many comparisons because that would be somewhat futile at this point. 'Quintessence' isn't the same sort of record as this one. It's different in many ways, not to mention production wise. One the first record, the production somewhat limited Annatar's abilities. Whilst he was still a fantastic musician at that point, his talents have progressed on to a much higher level, as have the band in general. Whilst limitations set the standard for the first record, there are drawbacks on this record. As they say, the sky is the limit and that would appear to be true.

Annatar, although having only taken a two year break to conceive this record, has come back a new man. His material is far more focused. The first record, 'Quintessence' relied a lot of atmosphere to make it a great album. Whilst the atmospheric nature of the album was indeed the strong point, there are by far and away more positives to take from the second record than there were on the first. Now, that doesn't mean to say that the first album was atrocious or one dimensional because it wasn't. There were aspects on that album that don't exist on this album, or perhaps just in different ways. That doesn't make either any less special than the other simply because they are two very different records.

Again, the most impressive aspect of this record, ‘Royaume De Glace' is the atmospheric nature that, to me, is like sitting in a dark room with one solitary bright light shining upon you. This record makes you believe you're the only one hearing it because the atmosphere sucks you into it. You're the only one who is allowed to hear this expression of pain and that makes the listener feel special. All in all, this is a special album, which requires full attention because the layer upon layer of intricate detail is incredible. For instance, the bass. Although bass is often overlooked in the black metal industry, it's importance on this particular album is most certainly noteworthy. Why? The bass is a sad instrument. It's low sound consciously plugs away in the background, following suit to the lead guitar.

A lot of the atmosphere is taken from the bass. It's ebbing and flowing allows for more expression on the lead guitar, whilst the bass keeps the very core of the album the same. Another addition that helps make this an atmospherically diverse album is the keyboards. Whilst the main emphasis of the music does not come from the keyboards, they drive the atmosphere to new and undiscovered places. This allows the album to sound fresh, keeping that dark and sinister edge to it through the lead guitar and the ever present bass, which truly is awe inspiring on this record.

The vocals are more impressive on this album than they were on the last too. They are kept at a very high standard throughout, emitting projections of anguish and pain in to the minds of the audience, whilst the instrumental sections of the album do their jobs efficiently. The melody of black metal vocals is perhaps a more important element than the lyrics or the vocals themselves. The job of the vocals, on most occasions, is to act almost like another instrument playing alongside the guitars. This is done on this album as well and done very well. The vocals sound perfect alongside the instrumental aspects of this album. Whilst the guitars create solid riffs, the bass plays harmonious lines with such emotion and the percussion fills in the gaps when the vocals aren't expressing the anguish that has gone in to making this record. We're on to a winner.